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GEXF converter

A .gexf file is Gephi's graph interchange format: XML describing nodes and edges with attributes, and — unlike most graph formats — with first-class support for visual properties and for graphs that change over time.

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Drop GEXF files here

Batch files can each use a different output. Nothing uploads for local conversions.

Working inputs include camera RAW, browser-local audio/video, PDF, CBZ/CBR comics, office documents, ebooks, markup, 3D models, structured text, images, and archives.

Where GEXF comes from

The Gephi team created GEXF in 2007 to carry things GraphML did not model natively: node colour, size and position, and dynamic graphs whose nodes and edges appear and disappear over a timeline. Version 1.2 in 2010 and 1.3 later refined it. It remains closely associated with Gephi, which is both its strength — it is the best-supported format there — and its limitation.

How GEXF works

  • The graph element's mode attribute is static or dynamic; dynamic graphs attach start and end times to nodes and edges.
  • defaultedgetype declares directed, undirected or mutual, and individual edges may set their own type.
  • The <viz> namespace carries colour, size, shape and position — visual state that GraphML has no standard place for.
  • Attributes are declared in an <attributes> block and referenced by id, similar in spirit to GraphML's keys.
  • Node labels are attributes on the element rather than child data, which is the most visible syntactic difference from GraphML.

When to use GEXF

  • Saving and sharing Gephi network visualisations with their styling intact
  • Representing a network that evolves over time
  • Handing a laid-out graph to a collaborator without losing positions
  • Converting to GraphML or DOT for analysis in another toolchain

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Native visual and temporal modelling, which most graph formats omit entirely
  • Clean, readable XML that maps closely to how Gephi thinks about graphs
  • Actively specified with a published schema

Limitations

  • Support outside Gephi and its ecosystem is thinner than GraphML's
  • Dynamic-graph features are implemented inconsistently
  • Verbose, with the same size cost as any XML graph format

Compatibility

Gephi, NetworkX, igraph, sigma.js and Cytoscape (via plugins) read GEXF. Novus Convert normalises topology and labels locally without network access or external entity expansion, and converts to GraphML, DOT, JSON and SVG. Visual and temporal attributes are not carried into the targets, none of which can represent them.

Graph meta elements — creator, description, last-modified date — are read; the targets have no equivalent field.

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